Many organizations today, especially those which provide some sort of customer service, employ various forms of customer call centers in order to put customers in contact with parties affiliated with the organization which can provide assistance. A call center which is in connection with the public switch telephone network (PSTN), typically includes an automatic call distributor (ACD) which is employable to route incoming telephone calls to available live call attendants. In order to serve a maximum number of incoming callers, call centers are typically designed to optimize call handling efficiency and telephone attendant productivity.
Many conventional systems allow call attendants to service a greater number of customers by ascertaining the nature of a customer's request through collection of initial information from the customer, and then transferring the call to a voice response unit (VRU) to address the specific request of the customer. Other systems may reverse this process by connecting the customer initially to a VRU which is configured to automatically provide various interactive menus through which an incoming caller may move in order to access desired prerecorded information. Selections made by the incoming caller within the VRU may also be employed to route the caller to an appropriate call attendant.
When the number of incoming callers to a call center is greater than the number of available call attendants, a number of the incoming calls may be placed in a call queue. Call queuing works well for call center operators in that it minimizes idle time for attendants, provides for simultaneous handling of a greater number of calls, provides intelligent routing of calls to appropriate call attendants, and provides indication to incoming callers that they will be able to speak with a call attendant and not have to continuously try to establish a connection. In most call center configurations, once an incoming caller is positioned within a call queue, the to caller is subjected to recorded messages or music until their call is routed to an available call attendant. During this time, the caller has no ability to perform other functions without losing their place in the call queue.